Sacred 2 - Review @ TVG

November 23rd, 2008, 03:05

UK gaming site TVG posts their review of Ascaron's recently released action rpg, Sacred 2:Fallen Angel, dishing out a score of 7/10:

As a dungeon crawler, Sacred 2 certainly offers what gamers look for. There are plenty of rogue elements to battle against, dropping loot along the way, along with labyrinthine dungeons and regions to get stuck into…there's a reason why it ships on two DVDs. For all its grand scale, and Ancaria is a mammoth place of over twenty square miles, Sacred 2 does…suffer from not feeling particularly epic at times. At a time where MMOs seem to be going through the gears of PC dominance, where World of Warcraft can sit alongside the free-to-play antics of Archlord, the more traditional action-RPGs (which Sacred 2 undoubtedly falls under) begin to feel rather old hat…But perhaps we're being a tad negative here; Sacred 2 finds itself in a hostile environment. PC gaming is going through a huge transition, and what Sacred 2 does is create a solid and deep experience for fans on the genre – even if it feels like we’ve experienced much of this in the past.

They also weren't too taken with the humor:

Something else that hasn't been forgotten from the 2004 original is humour, which continues to feel out of place here. Right from the loading screen, when a random quip appears (sometimes based on Monty Python), this 'lighter' side to Sacred II defies its hardcore gameplay. It's actually pretty contrived, with gravestones enjoying such jape-filled epitaphs like 'I'm not going anywhere', enemies going all post-modern with quips such as 'I knew I was only an extra'… It's not a sweet or mischievous humour like Overlord or Fable, or further back into the annals of time, the Discworld adventures, but what it does succeed in doing is stick out like a sore thumb.

Conclusion:

Despite being a deep RPG that delivers a lot of scope for fans of the hack 'n' slash genre, Sacred 2's 16-player online multiplayer is its only real stab at originality. A lot feels familiar, and the attempt at humour doesn't pay off – that said, if you're looking for a stop-gap before Diablo III, then Fallen Angel will no doubt suit you well